


How Janet Found Out (And How She Didn't)

by Leyenn



Series: everyone will say [2]
Category: Stargate - All Media Types, Stargate SG-1
Genre: 5 Things, 5+1 Things, Accidental Voyeurism, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Death Fix, Coming Out, Coming Out As A Threesome, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Eavesdropping, Established Relationship, Feeeeeeeeeels I'm Sorry, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Injury Recovery, Major Character Injury, Multi, OT3, POV Female Character, POV Outsider, Polyamory, Polyandry, Secret Relationship, Team as Family, Threesome - F/M/M, girl talk, parenting, teal'c ships it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:35:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25880695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leyenn/pseuds/Leyenn
Summary: Five times Janet found out about Sam, Jack and Daniel, and one time she never did.
Relationships: Janet Fraiser & SG-1 Team, Janet Fraiser & Samantha "Sam" Carter, Samantha "Sam" Carter/Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill
Series: everyone will say [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878055
Kudos: 35





	How Janet Found Out (And How She Didn't)

**Author's Note:**

> The 'one' is out of order, because I couldn't end it that way. 
> 
> For potential trigger info: 3 references possible (but mistaken for) sexual assault, 5 references major character death, 6 fixes said death.

**1.**

"It's stupid," she hears Daniel say, as she puts down a box of inventory outside the otherwise empty ward where they've set him up for the next week. New recruits on base always think Daniel's got the worst luck in the world when it comes to ending up in the infirmary, but anyone who's been around a while knows that the opposite is true. If they could bottle Daniel's luck at staying alive and mostly in one piece – or at least able to be put back into one – then they could fund the entire Program out of Vegas.

"Tell us anyway." That's O'Neill's usual _humor me, Daniel_ voice, but there's something soft in it. Janet smiles fondly to herself. It's not strictly visiting hours, in fact it's strictly _not_ visiting hours, but she teaches her staff to treat a gate team as one person when it comes to who can go where and when. It's not the hell on procedure that it really should be, and it saves everyone a lot of misery and reprimands when they're only going to break the rules anyway.

There's a long pause, and then; "I sleep alone at home all the time."

"You can't sleep? But they're giving you the good drugs."

"I know."

"We're better than drugs?" There's a lilt to O'Neill's voice, a little happy and a little surprised.

"I'd rather have you than drugs." She thinks maybe she misheard that – Daniel's not on anything that strong – but O'Neill just chuckles. 

"Well, quit getting shot."

Daniel's yawn is audible through a laugh. "Hm, sure, I'll work on that."

"Sam could probably fit up there," and Janet stops what she's doing, surprised. She can count on the fingers of one hand – hell, the joints of one finger – the number of times she's heard the Colonel use Sam's first name. Sure, this one was pretty serious even as SG-1's escapades go, but there's no dire end-of-the-world situation at hand, at least that Janet knows about.

"I'm not doing that," Sam speaks up. Janet didn't realise she was there, too, but she's not surprised. Then, as if it's the only sensible reason not to; "I'll hurt you."

O'Neill huffs, as if he's not convinced of her logic. "C'mere, then."

Sam's voice changes entirely in a moment. "Jack…" 

Wow. Janet can't even remember the last time she heard Sam cross that professional line, but she definitely didn't mishear that, or Sam's tone.

"I'm allowed to hug you." O'Neill sounds a little petulant, but mostly entreating. "Pretty sure it's even in the regulations somewhere. Permitted physical contact after trauma, and all that."

"I'm pretty sure it isn't."

"File it under another SGC amendment, then. Now come here before I have to get you up on that bed, you're dead on your feet." 

"You do look a bit like I feel," Daniel says. 

There's a moment of just footsteps, and then Sam, sounding more than a little rueful. "I guess it's hard sleeping without you, too." 

A quiet laugh from O'Neill, but not exactly amused. "So we're all screwed, then, huh?" 

" _Jack_ ," Sam says, again, but she sounds like it's the last protest she has in her.

" _Carter._ So help me god I will wipe some cameras if I have to, come on. Give Daniel something nice to dream about at least." Then, much quieter, so that Janet can hardly hear and wouldn't be sure it were O'Neill if she didn't know no one else is in there; "Sam. It's all good. Trust me."

She doesn't hear Sam's reply, if there is one, but Janet finds she's holding her breath for it anyway. The unrequited love story at the center of SG-1 is just one of those things about the SGC, where secrets pile on top of secrets – no one's ever going to _say_ anything, but everyone knows. If it's really not so unrequited after all then it's risky and reckless for them to do anything on base, but her infirmary is one of the safest spaces she can make it, and she's definitely not going to be the one who breaks the unwritten rule and speaks the truth to anyone.

She listens, but the room stays quiet; after a few moments, she moves on to restocking the shelves. She's almost finished the last count when a sudden groan, definitely Daniel's, breaks her concentration. It's followed by the tell-tale creak of an infirmary mattress as its occupant shifts around, and she's taken a few steps toward the ward door when she hears him speak. If O'Neill has a _humor me, Daniel_ voice, then Daniel's counter is the _let me explain this to you, Jack_ voice and it's suddenly in fine form.

"You do know you're both supposed to be making me feel better, not killing me?"

"Hey, it'd make me feel better."

Daniel snorts. Through the door she can just see he's still neatly tucked into the bed where she left him at lights out, but now he's on his side facing a chair pulled right up under the side of the bed. "I'll remember that next time it's you stuck in here. Sam?"

A slightly sleepy laugh. "Hm, I'm in."

Daniel smiles and stretches an arm out to the edge of the mattress. A hand closes around his from the chair: Sam's, she thinks.

O'Neill makes an offended noise. "Anyone else notice a bit of a double standard, there?"

"Oh, you love it," but now Sam just sounds tired. Janet can't see her face, but she can see how her fingers play gently with Daniel's. "He's right, you know, you really need to stop getting shot."

"We could all quit and move out to Cimmeria. Build a cabin, maybe. Jack could fish." Daniel's eyes look like they're slipping closed.

"I hear it's nice this time of year." She can't see the Colonel, but she can tell he's yawning. "I bet property values skyrocket when the Asgard come to town."

"We'd all be stir-crazy in a week."

There's a heavy silence for a moment - and then Daniel, sounding halfway between contemplative and amused. "Well, maybe not a _week_ …"

A burst of laughter from Sam, one that's quickly muffled, and a low, dirty chuckle from O'Neill.

"Not just sleep you're missing in here, huh?"

"I thought I made that pretty obvious."

Really not so unrequited at all, Janet thinks, with slow wonder. _Really_ not at all, and far more of a story than the one everyone thinks they know.

The silence is longer this time; she's nearly done with the last box of inventory when she hears Daniel again, in a voice that's very soft and thick with emotion.

"I love you. You both… tell me you both know that."

It's O'Neill who answers, just as quietly but with no less feeling. "We know, Daniel."

"Sorry I got shot… again."

"Not your fault. Wouldn't be a Wednesday if you didn't." 

Janet tucks the last drawer closed and edges nearer the door, very carefully takes hold of the handle as she looks in. Sam and the Colonel are somehow squeezed into the single chair together, his arm around her waist and her head on his shoulder. He's worked his other hand into the tangle of fingers on the edge of the bed, and Janet gets a single glimpse of something shockingly tender in his expression before he leans in close. 

"How about you try and get some sleep. Start healing that sexy new scar you're gonna have."

Daniel makes an amused noise into the pillow. "Mmm. 'kay. You're staying?"

"Undomesticated equines, as Teal'c likes to say. Definitely don't think they could move Carter right now." 

Daniel blinks, sounds for a moment like he's trying hard to stay awake for just one more second. "Jack…"

"Shh. I'll keep watch. No one's gonna see anything they shouldn't." 

And that's when he looks up and straight into Janet's eyes, and it's not a wink but it is a slight twitch of his lips, very close to Sam's hair. "No one to worry about, anyway."

Janet's fairly certain Daniel doesn't hear that last part, because he doesn't stir at all as she smiles back and puts a single finger to her lips. She pulls the door closed as quietly as she can; as she tiptoes away, she can just hear him softly begin to snore.

  


* * *

  


**2.**

Cassie's thirteen, and they're eating dinner in front of the TV as a special treat for the pop quiz scores pinned to the refrigerator door.

"Mom, does Sam have a boyfriend?"

Janet puts down the mouthful she's about to take. Cassie hasn't quite started to notice boys – or girls, for that matter – for herself, but she's definitely noticed that they're something that adults have. Mostly, something other adults have and Janet doesn't.

"Sam spends all her time at work, honey. Or with you." She smiles fondly. "I don't think she has time for a boyfriend."

"Oh." Cassie takes another bite of her pizza.

For a moment, Janet thinks about leaving it, but she'd rather save Sam the 'I don't need a relationship to be happy' conversation she's had to have twice now, if she can. "Why?"

Cassie might not have noticed romance yet, but she's mastered the teenage shrug with the skill of a prodigy. "No reason."

And Janet, well, she might not have started out a mother, but she's got pretty good at a few skills too. "Really. No reason." 

Cassie fidgets, pulling the slice apart with her fingers. "Don't play with your food," Janet says absently, to which Cassie promptly balls up the whole thing and shoves it in her mouth with a sudden hamster-grin that has them both laughing and hurriedly avoiding a disaster of tomato and cheese on the couch cushions.

Still, Janet isn't surprised when, in the middle of choosing an evening movie, Cassie says, without looking up at her from the floor: "I heard her on the phone to someone, that's all."

Oh, so it's not quite the conversation she thought it was. "Who, Sam?"

"Yeah." 

Well, Cassie sleeps over there at least once a month. "When did you hear this?"

"It was late. She was in the bedroom. I only had to pee," Cassie adds, defensively, and Janet quickly puts down her wine glass and leans forward.

"Hey, I'm not mad, okay? I'm sure Sam isn't either." Sometimes she still curses Nirrti, never more than when the streak of abandonment issues a mile wide rears its head in her otherwise bright, happy, curious girl. "Maybe you just misunderstood what she was saying, honey. Certain people I know talk on the phone in their bedrooms all the time," and she adds a pointed but amused arch of her eyebrows that at least makes Cassie smile, under the sudden redness in her cheeks.

"She said she loved them. She sounded sappy. You know." The pause is barely there, but it is. "The way my – my parents used to, sometimes."

"Oh. Well…" Janet tries not to let on that she's too surprised, or… well, okay, if Sam _does_ have someone she's pleased for her, despite the fact that it'll probably give Cassie even more ammunition against her own happily single existence. "If she does have someone, she just might not want to tell anyone just yet."

Cassie tilts her head. The movie cases in her hands are now forgotten, Janet can tell. "Why?"

"Well, maybe she wants to make sure it's something that's going to last, before she talks about it."

"Why wouldn't it last, if she loves them?"

 _Oh, to be a child again._ Janet sighs. "Lots of reasons," she says, kicking herself, knowing it's a complete cop-out, but it's getting late and she's only got half a bottle of wine in the house, which is _not enough_ to have that discussion. "But there's lots of reasons it would, too," she adds quickly. "And I'm sure Sam will want to tell you when she's ready, okay? You're very special to her." She slides off the couch to join Cassie on the floor. "Now, what do you want to watch?"

  


"Sam was talking to her boyfriend again last night," Cassie says, a month later, as Janet tucks her into bed after a long Monday.

Janet raises an eyebrow, sets the glass of water on the dresser and sits down on the side of the bed. "Oh?"

"Yeah." Cassie snuggles down, hugging her bear tight. She's 'too old' now for plush toys by day, but the bear with one blue ear and a giant heart on its chest is one Sam gave her last year from a trip up to Denver for her birthday, and it never leaves the bed. "I think she really loves him. They were talking about going on a trip together, somewhere sunny and hot. And she was on the phone a really long time."

Janet frowns at the niggling suspicion she has rising. "Cassie, were you eavesdropping?"

"No!" But Cassie squirms under her gaze. "Well, maybe a little bit?" She wilts a little into the pillow. "I just wanted to know, if she has someone special."

Janet sighs inwardly. "That's very sweet of you, but it's not nice to listen in to other people's private conversations."

"You do it when _I'm_ on the phone."

"That's different," though she's aware that it isn't, really, and resolves to really not do that again. "Usually it's because I want to use the phone," she adds with a teasing smile, and Cassie makes a face.

"Yeah, okay." She rolls over a little, tucking the bear under her chin and sleepily closing her eyes. "Mom, do you think Sam's happy?"

Janet pulls the covers up to her shoulder and smooths her hair. "I'm sure she is, honey, whether she has a boyfriend or not. Now go to sleep."

  


She's always tried not to impose on anyone when she has childcare clashes, most especially Sam or Daniel or Jack – who is always firmly _Jack_ to her off-duty where Cassie's concerned, on his own insistence – both because she's firmly of the opinion that she's the one who took this on, and because they're all busy enough that any free time they have on-world and actually off-base is time she's loath to interrupt. Ironically, Teal'c is probably the one she'd be most likely to ask, but she very firmly refuses to bring Cassie to the SGC for any number of stubborn personal and classified professional reasons.

But tonight she can't think of what else to do, when the page comes in as she's cooking dinner – SG-7 and 12 both coming through the gate in twenty with weapons hot and unknown casualties, and the science team off-world with SG-4 calling for full medical quarantine onsite for nine people because of some kind of super-alkaline plant spores…

She shouts Cassie to pack whatever she wants to stay over at Sam's for the night, flicks the stove off and grabs her keys. Three minutes and counting and she's on the road trying to calmly reassure Cassie that no, it's no one she knows, and yes, she's sure everyone will be fine, they just need her there because there's so much going on, that's all. 

She figures she'll deal with the half-cooked meal later, it won't be the first time.

"Go ring the bell," she tells Cass, even as she's throwing the car into park in the driveway. Cassie scrambles out and runs to the porch, and Janet finds a small mercy in the fact that she's already more excited for an unexpected night at Sam's than worried about what's happening at the mountain.

The door opens as she's halfway up the path, Sam barefoot in a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt old-smeared with engine oil that's never coming out. She raises her eyebrows in surprise, snaps her eyes to Janet.

"They need me at the infirmary," she says, apologetically. "And possibly on P-five-seventy. Possibly at the same time," and Sam winces.

"Um, sure, of course – come on in, Cass," and at least Cassie doesn't need to be told twice. "Take your bag to your room," Sam shouts after her, maybe a little – actually, maybe a lot – louder than she needs to, but Janet doesn't have time to worry.

"Thanks, Sam. You're not on duty tomorrow, are you?"

Sam shakes her head. "Downtime until Monday. W- I'll take care of her, don't worry. Go, go on," and Janet doesn't need to be told twice.

The infirmary is already a hive of activity when she arrives, and the next six hours are a blur that only comes back to her afterwards, back in Sam's driveway with both hands on the wheel and slowly counting out her breaths until she's back in the real world again. She can hear her bed calling even from across town and it's just barely an acceptable time to call on anyone, but right now she just wants to see her daughter, even if it is just to watch her sleep. 

She gets the idea that maybe it's not been uneventful here, too, when it's O'Neill who opens the door - and says, with a huge amount of feeling that's either relief or terror, or both; "Oh, great."

That's not the greeting she expected in any of a dozen ways, and alarm bells immediately go off in her head. "Colonel? What's wrong?"

He reaches out and tugs her gently into the house. "Oh, it's Jack. _Definitely_ Jack. Come in, we're in the living room and Carter's got wine open." 

It’s far past her bedtime but Cass is sitting on the couch in her pyjamas next to Sam, idly swinging her bare feet. Daniel's there, too, kneeling on the rug in front of them both with a very earnest look on his face but a definite flush of red under it. He's wearing what looks like a faded jungle fatigue tank, so she can see the blush creeping down his neck as he says, "oh, no, see, Cassie, it's not like that..." 

"Like what?" She frowns, concern rising. "What's going on?"

Daniel looks up. "Ah. Janet-"

"Is everything okay?" 

"Everything's fine, doc." Jack's come in behind her. "Probably wanna take a seat, though."

Cassie grins at her as she sits down, the triumphant grin of a child winning the jackpot, but mixed with something confused and a bit wild. "I _told_ you Sam had a boyfriend!"

"Cass," Daniel says, sounding close to the end of his ability to cope. Janet sinks down into the chair, just glad that whatever madness Cassie's started now, it's at least not life-threatening. She can't take much more of that in the same twenty-four hours.

"Well, I did." Cassie frowns. "I heard you talking a couple times," she says, looking at Sam. "You were going on a trip. Was it as sunny as you wanted?"

Jack raises an eyebrow. "A trip, Carter?"

"The check in on Madrona, probably," Daniel says. "We were talking about it a few weeks ago, remember? Sam was hoping the weather device was gonna work without a hitch this time."

Janet sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry, Sam." She looks at Cassie. "Remember we said you might have misunderstood, Cass?"

"Ah," Sam starts.

"But, mom, I _didn't_ ," Cass cuts in. "You were really sappy," she accuses Sam, but in that tone of an all-knowing and very pleased child – and then, immediately, she turns and glares at Jack. " _Really_ sappy," she repeats, and this time it's a tone of anger.

Jack raises his hands in surrender, as Sam puts her hand gently on Cassie's knee. "Cass, we told you, it's not like that."

"But you said _I love you,_ " Cassie insists vehemently. Sam blushes the same color as Daniel, if not deeper.

"Yeah, I probably did. I didn't think you could hear," and she's half addressing that at Janet, a touch of apology in her voice. "Sorry, Janet – I swear, I've been super careful whenever she's here…"

"Careful about what?"

"They were hiding," Cass tells her. "They didn't want to tell. Like Toronto."

Daniel's been sitting back on his heels, but now he leans forward and holds out both hands to Cassie – not taking, but asking, and she hesitates a moment but slowly puts her own in his. Janet can see him squeeze her fingers gently.

"Listen, Cass, you're right, but – not exactly, okay? We were hiding, but not from each other. That's what I was trying to say. Jack and I, we _both_ love Sam. Very much." He looks up at Sam, and Janet sees their eyes lock for a moment. "And Sam loves us both, too. That's why it's okay for us to be..."

"Doing what we're doing," Jack puts in helpfully. Daniel shoots him a split-second and long-suffering glance.

"We're all special to each other. Like your parents on Hanka were special to each other. Understand?"

Jack chuckles under his breath. "'Special'?"

"Well, you're special to me, Jack." This time Daniel quirks an eyebrow up at him. "Telling me you don't feel the same?"

And Cassie pulls her hands from Daniel's, twists around to kneel on the couch and glares up at Jack for an entirely different reason. "Don't you?!"

"Oh, that's a low play," but Jack sighs and his face softens. "Yes, all right, you know I do."

It's slowly dawning on her that Cassie is going to milk this one for _years_. "Are you trying to tell me," she glances around the room, "the three of you…?"

"Ooh, hey, Cass." Jack hops forward and holds out a hand over the back of the couch. "What say we go see if Sam's got any chocolate fudge ice cream in the freezer?"

Cassie grins – "Yeah!" – scrambles up from the couch to take his hand, and all but drags him toward the kitchen.

Janet sits back in her chair, looks at Sam and Daniel, and raises an eyebrow. "Okay, I think you'd better start from the beginning."

  


* * *

  


**3.**

"Sam." Janet tries her utmost to balance professional and warm in her voice and expression and posture as Sam steps into her office. "Come in, have a seat."

"Hey, Janet." Sam gives her a bright smile, dropping into the other chair. "What's up?"

She looks like she's ready to leave for the evening, and Janet hates that she has to be here instead. She picks up the file and leans forward a little, trying to be reassuring, not pushy. Just start where Sam will be comfortable, with the facts. "The lab results from your post-mission physical came back."

Sam raises an eyebrow. "That's all? It was a pretty routine trip, Janet. We were only there two days. I didn't even have time to get a sunburn."

"I know." She leans in, just a little. "Sam… you know you can talk to me, right?"

"Sure." For the first time, Sam starts to look concerned that this might be something serious. "Janet, what is it?"

Maybe she doesn't remember, Janet thinks. There's nothing to suggest any missing time or memories for any of the team, but any SGC scientist learns quickly enough that lack of evidence is the last reason to believe something can't be real.

"Do you remember that we took some extra trace samples this time?"

Sam nods, fingers absently going to the skin scrape spot at the top of her thigh. The spot so close to where Janet can too clearly recall those small bruises starting to show, small enough for fingertips, small enough that Sam had twitched with some surprise during the exam as if she’d not even noticed them before.

“Sure, the trial for the new hazmat procedure. Though unless maple trees can mutate a dangerous strain in three thousand years or so, I can't imagine you found much…"

She trails off, still rubbing her leg, a gesture that's suddenly less absent-minded.

"Oh." It's a very small sound, a mix of realisation and resignation and rising panic. Janet leans further forward, reaching for her.

"Sam-"

"Oh, crap." Sam flops back in her chair and covers her face with her hands, lets out a loud breath. Softer, so Janet's not sure she's supposed to hear; "damn it."

"Sam." She puts the gentlest hand on Sam's knee. "It's okay. No one's going to be upset with you."

Sam gives a shaky laugh and a small toss of her head. "Oh, I appreciate the sentiment, but that's really not true."

"Of course it is." She gives Sam's knee a reassuring squeeze. "Whatever you feel right now, this isn't your fault. Will you tell me what happened?"

Sam just looks at her for a long moment, like she's deciding the answer to the question. Janet doesn't push, doesn't move, doesn't interrupt, just tries to let her come to it when she's ready-

There's a loud rap on the door and the immediate sound of it opening before she can dive to lock it. "Carter, you ready to go get-" 

Janet closes her eyes for a second to calm the fury. "Colonel, this is a _private_ consultation."

O'Neill, of course, doesn't take that how he should, doesn't apologise and hotfoot out before she can slam the door in his face. Instead he steps fully into the room, letting the door start to swing closed again behind him. "Carter? You okay?"

Janet turns to look up at him. " _Colonel O'Neill-_ "

Her tone seems to get through to him at last. "Ah, sorry... Carter, we'll be topside whenever you're-"

"Jack."

The way Sam says his name is the first hint to Janet that she might have misread something about the situation. She's seen how they look at each other, of course she has – the entire base knows how close SG-1 are, everyone has their own bets on what's going on with who and for how long. But Sam is her friend, so Janet's been fairly confident that neither Sam nor the Colonel would act on how they obviously feel while he's still her CO, and sure she'd know if they had.

Maybe she's not quite as sure, now.

There's the quiet click of the door closing, but O'Neill's hand stays firmly on the knob and his eyes firmly on Sam. Then he says the one thing she's really not expecting. 

"Do I need to get Daniel?"

Sam doesn't look surprised at the question, just looks like she doesn't actually know the answer. "Where is he?"

O'Neill picks up the phone on the wall. "I'll call him."

Sam stands up as if she's going to join him: stops as if she realises what she's doing or suddenly thinks better of it. Instead Janet finds herself watching Sam watching O'Neill, then watching O'Neill watching Sam watching O'Neill: every few seconds there's a look that seems to pass between them, beyond even what she's gotten used to seeing, and it's the only reason she doesn't try to take back control of this whole situation.

There's a polite knock, just once, on the door. The Colonel pulls it open a crack, then just wide enough, and a moment later Daniel slips inside with a quiet, "What's going on, Jack?" His forehead creases fully into a frown. "Sam?"

O'Neill leans his weight back against the closed door and looks for all the world like it's casual, but it's clear nothing short of Teal'c and a battering ram is going to get that door open again before he's ready. Across the room, Sam mirrors him, leaning back against the desk. 

"Janet did my post-mission physical," she says.

Daniel's eyes immediately go wide, dart between her and O'Neill. "Is this…?"

"I think the doc was feeling extra thorough this week," O'Neill says. Janet bristles at his flippant tone.

"Colonel!"

"It's okay, Janet." Somehow, Sam's trying to be reassuring. "Really, it's just –" And there's that _look_ again, but this time it's between all three of them, something intense and private and filled with a conversation she's not privy to.

It's Daniel who breaks first: blinking his gaze to her, suddenly incredulous, and she can tell he sees the depth of concern she's been trying to keep at bay.

"Wait a minute – _you think_ –"

"I don't think she's asking on the off chance, Daniel."

Janet could shoot him. " _Colonel!_ "

He sighs, looking over at Sam again. "Let's just tell her, for crying out loud." 

The door locking is loud in the moment of silence. Daniel takes a step toward her, one hand slightly extended like he's trying to gentle her down.

"Janet, it's really not what you think."

"Who was it?" She stares at him. "Do you _know_?"

O'Neill clears his throat loudly. Sam looks helplessly at Daniel, who carefully drops his hand back to his side. 

"Both of us." He pauses, as if he's not sure she heard; she's not sure she has. She can't have heard _right_. 

" _What?!_ " She can't even feel horrified, she's just so taken aback. 

"Oh, God – _no!_ No no no," Daniel shakes his head frantically. "That's not what I meant. Just that it's - me. And Jack. Whatever you found, it's probably…" He flicks a glance at Sam. "Well, there are probably two… contributors."

O'Neill snorts. "Jesus, Daniel."

"Well, how were you going to put it?!"

"I don't know, something a little less on the nose?"

"She thinks Sam was _raped_ , Jack!"

Sam makes a tiny, clipped sound and stares at her in surprise. Janet isn't sure what that look is that crosses O'Neill's face, but she is sure she never wants to be on the receiving end of it again. It's not often she's reminded so clearly that most of his record is Black Ops classified even before he signed on at the SGC.

"Guys." Ridiculously, it's Sam, even looking a little shocked, who suddenly sounds like she's trying to talk them all down. "God, Janet, I'm sorry you ever thought - Guys. Jack," and she takes a step toward him. "Don't. I'm _fine_ , you know that."

Daniel takes a loud breath and scrubs a hand over his face, but his voice is still faintly incredulous when he looks at Janet. "You know you'd be treating both of us," he waves a hand between himself and O'Neill, "for _serious_ defensive wounds if anyone had even _tried_ , right?"

"They'd still be finding the fucking _body parts_ ," O'Neill growls out. Then he takes a deep breath, too, and a few more that are obviously supposed to be calming. "Okay, look, doc… Janet. I don't know what you have, but whatever made you look into… this…" He looks at Sam, then Daniel again, then finally back to her. "It was definitely all, well, consensual, okay?"

"You'll excuse me if I want to hear that from my patient," she says, and O'Neill throws Sam that _look_.

"Carter, _please_ tell me-"

"Yes!" Sam's blushing, wide-eyed, but she doesn't hesitate. "Holy _Hannah_ , yes. _More_ than consensual, every time, I promise."

Daniel suddenly reaches for her and pulls her into a hug, pressing his face into her neck. Sam's arms come around him instantly; she tilts her head and murmurs something in his ear that Janet can't make out, but gets her a muffled sound of amusement and a shift of shoulders that might be a nod. She pets his hair lightly.

"Janet, you have no idea how much I appreciate your being worried. I mean it." Her hand runs down Daniel's back to find his. "I'm so sorry. I should have thought, and I should have told you, but - the only thing you need to be worrying about is whether we end up court-martialled."

O'Neill chuckles darkly from the door. "Oh, that's all."

"You knew when we started this," Sam shoots back at him, but it's more affectionate than irritated.

"And I'd have done the same thing." He shrugs. "I still say after you've saved the world a few times, that's worth a pass."

Janet really isn't sure it works that way, but the pure relief that Sam is actually okay overwhelms anything else. "So this… you, are…" She doesn't exactly know what she's trying to say with the wave of her hands, but it seems like she's clear enough this time, at least.

"Yeah." Sam starts to smile as she steps away from Daniel, though her fingertips static-cling to his for a moment. "I was going to tell you. We just weren't exactly sure how to..."

"Well _one_ of you should have told me." She folds her arms and at least tries to look stern rather than relieved beyond measure. "I'm your doctor, for God's sake. I need to know these things."

O'Neill smirks. "Well, if you really want the details…"

"I want to know if I'm going to find erroneous _contributions_ in your lab results," she retorts, just pointedly enough that they all look immediately apologetic. "You're lucky I review all of your results personally. Do I need to start including _extra supplies_ in your off-world kits?" In truth the kits are well-stocked on that score, but it's worth the jab for the way O'Neill makes a face and points accusingly.

"This, this is why we didn't tell her."

She smiles sweetly. "I'm just concerned for your health and happiness, Colonel."

"It couldn't hurt," Daniel says, a little thoughtful.

"I can make a list, if you like," Sam adds.

O'Neill grins like he's proud of them both, and Janet considers that she really, really needs to ask for a raise.

  


* * *

  


**4.**

Given the job they do, the chance for an actual night off – let alone time to be social - is rare, and Janet is pragmatic enough to realise that it's Cassie who really makes it happen. If Sam weren't quite so attached, this might not be such a regular thing, but it is and she's gained not just an amazing daughter but a great friend over the last few years. They don't get to hang out as often as they might like, especially given she leaves it to SG-1's schedule most of the time, but she's always happy to have a girls' evening so it's nothing unusual to have Sam drop by the infirmary at the last minute with the idea they get wine and takeout that night.

Sam brings Malaysian over at six, and they eat while Cass regales them both – mostly Sam – with the details of her latest science project and picks her brain for a new book to read. Afterwards, Sam sets up the chess board on the kitchen table, and Janet washes up to the soundtrack of Cassie learning Alekhine's Defense until it's somewhere after eight - at which point she checks the board, decides the game could go for hours and declares it's time for wine and homework, respectively.

Cass is only a little reluctant, at least: Sam's only just pouring the wine by the time Janet comes back downstairs. 

"I figured red?" She hands over a glass. 

"Thanks." Janet notices her phone is on the counter, propped open. It buzzes just as Sam picks up her own glass, a text message too small to read popping on screen. "Problem?"

Sam flashes a quick smile and scoops her phone quickly into her hand. "Nope."

It's a little odd, but she doesn't think much about it – at least, not until she's refilling their glasses a second time on the way from tucking Cassie into bed, and walks back in to Sam typing idly with one thumb while absently rubbing the back of her neck with the other hand. 

"Everything okay?"

Sam looks up quickly and gives her that smile again. "Fine. Thanks," she takes the glass again and immediately takes a sip. "Cassie's definitely asleep?"

Janet nods. "She's certainly snoring like it. I've caught her with a flashlight under the covers once or twice, but I don't think she's reached the stage of fake sound effects yet."

"Good," Sam says, and Janet raises an eyebrow. Sam smiles at being caught.

"I need to talk to you about something, and I think it'd really be better if Cass didn't overhear."

That odd sense of distraction since the chess game suddenly makes a lot more sense. She's seen Sam with her head in the clouds enough times over a project to know that she's usually better at leaving work under the mountain, at least when she actually manages to leave the mountain. "Oh?"

Sam's obviously trying to look reassuring – or to reassure herself, Janet's not entirely sure. "It's nothing bad, I just – I'm not sure she'd understand, that's all."

"Okay, well," she sits back and props her glass on her knee. "I'm all yours."

"Okay." Sam looks down into her wine, gives the glass just the slightest tilt to start the liquid swirling. The breath she takes in is audible from across the room. "Okay. I'm…" She takes a mouthful of wine and swallows, but she doesn't look up from her glass. "I'm seeing someone. On base."

"Sergeant Siler," Janet quips, immediately, hoping to release at least some of the tension she's obviously holding. It seems to work, at least a little – Sam looks up at her and laughs.

"No, definitely not."

"Lieutenant Davis."

"No!" She laughs again, but her hand slips to the phone tucked beside her thigh and Janet notices how her fingers curl around the edge of the plastic. 

" _Major_ Davis, then?"

"Janet!" 

"Sorry." She waves a hand in surrender. "No more, I promise." At least Sam's smiling. "So, who is the lucky guy?" 

The pause is just a beat too long: Janet has a daughter on the cusp of puberty, she's more than experienced with awkward pauses. Sam looks like she doesn't know what to say, and Janet feels her heart swell in sympathy. "Oh… Sam, honey, look, if you're worried, if it's not – Cass loves you no matter what, and I would never –"

"No, it is, it is, it's –" Sam leans over and deliberately puts her glass down. "It's a guy. It's just not… _a_ guy."

Janet arches her eyebrows. "He's two people?" The thought hits her like a truck. "Oh god, is it _Teal'c_?"

"Oh my god, no!" Sam looks as freaked out by the idea as she is. "No, but… yes. They are. Two… people." She takes a breath like she's been holding it for hours. 

"You're dating two different guys? Do they know?"

Sam rubs the back of her neck with one hand. "Ah. Yeah. They definitely… know." 

Janet drops her voice, faux-scandalised. "Samantha Carter, did you have a _three-way_?"

She expects Sam to blush; to look away; to fumble a little in embarrassment for an answer, all of which she gets. What she doesn't expect is the way Sam hugs her knee up to her chest, picks up her phone and just holds it tightly pressed between her palms, like it's some sort of talisman she's hanging onto.

Janet gets up and moves to the couch, into the seat beside where Sam's watching her. 

"Sam?" She says it gently.

"Yeah." Sam puts her cheek against her knee. She smiles, though it's tiny and a little strained. Her voice is quieter, suddenly. "I did. I am. Having a three-way, if that's what you want to call it. For a while now."

Janet does her absolute best not to stare. "…oh."

Sam tilts her head upright and puts her chin on her knee instead. "Yeah, I know."

" _Two_ guys?"

Sam nods. 

"At – I mean," she starts to gesture and then _definitely_ thinks better of it, "I don't mean – but – at the same time?"

Sam nods.

"And they're…" God, she needs to stop moving her hands. She picks up the glass again and deliberately cups the bowl in her fingers. "Both of them are good with it?"

Sam's smile goes suddenly warm, enough that Janet doesn't really need an answer in words. "Well, I think so."

"And you're good?"

The warmth in her eyes shifts into another gear entirely. "Yeah. It's not exactly easy, but I'm really good."

"Well, then…" Janet shrugs, and offers a hopeful smile of her own. "I'd say it sounds like that's all that matters." 

"Thanks, Janet." Sam doesn't uncurl herself, but she does relax a little and looks hopeful, too. "You're really okay with this?"

That swell of compassion tightens in her chest again at the thought that Sam actually worried about this, about revealing something that puts that look on her face so easily. "Sam, if you're happy, then that really is the most important thing." She rests a hand lightly on Sam's wrist. "So, do your team know?"

Sam gets a strange little expression and puts a hand over hers. "Teal'c is really happy for us," she says, and though she seems to enunciate the words a little slower, a little clearer, than usual, it still takes Janet a moment to follow their actual meaning to-

"The _Colonel_ and _Daniel?!_ "

Sam promptly hides her face in her raised thigh. Janet can hear her muffling laughter, can see it dancing in her eyes as she dares to look up over her knee.

" _Sam!_ " She's staring with her mouth hanging open, she knows it, she just can't stop. "How long?!"

"A few months-"

" _Months?_ "

Sam's gaze, and her voice, softens. "I love them, Janet." 

She doesn't roll her eyes, but it's a close thing. "I hate to break it to you, but that's hardly news."

Sam smiles, ducks her head a little. "No, I mean… Yes, that, too, but – I love them. I'm in love with them. We're in love, all of us, and it's - weird and amazing and it feels like it shouldn't work at all, but it just… It works better than anything else I've ever built." She presses her forehead to her knee with a quiet groan. "God, that's so corny of me."

The strangest part is that it doesn't sound strange at all. "You have got it bad," she says, teasing just a little.

Sam laughs brightly, and doesn't seem to care now that she's blushing. "I really have." She sets her phone down beside her foot. Janet gives it a pointed glance: Sam's lips twitch apologetically. "Daniel. He – they knew I was going to try and tell you tonight. He's been trying to keep me calm all evening."

She can't help a gentle frown. "You were that worried about telling me?"

Sam shrugs with a nonchalance that's obviously feigned, and a relief that isn't. "It's not exactly your average relationship."

She has to laugh. "When was it ever that?" Any gate team is the closest of close, but the entire base knows SG-1 are far beyond what normal looks like – apparently just further beyond than anyone knows. "You've all been way off the curve since the beginning. To be honest this makes more sense than anything else." She's not quite sure if she should push - but Sam seems so happy, she can't resist. "Soooo… how is it?"

Sam obviously gets her meaning instantly, given the way her blush rushes back. "Janet!"

She grins as suggestively as she knows how. "Oh, come on, you have to tell me something. It's been long enough that I've probably forgotten what to do with one man in bed, never mind two."

"It comes back to you." Sam's still flushed but her eyes are sparkling. "Mostly it's still, you know, basic anatomy. Just more of it, and it's more… intense, I guess." 

She raises an eyebrow. "'Intense'. That's all I get?"

"It's hard to describe, it's just…" The look that flits across Sam's face, then, brings a heat to her own skin that has nothing to do with the wine. "God, Janet, sometimes it's so good I think I'm dreaming."

"Okay, that's it." She drops both feet back to the floor with a definite _thump_. "We're having the rest of that bottle, and you're going to tell me _everything_. But first," she reaches over for the phone and places it in Sam's palm. "Tell Daniel I said hi."

Sam grins and flips the phone open.

  


* * *

  


**5.**

Daniel has nightmares for months after. First they're about finding her body, the clammy feeling of her skin under his fingers, the silence where there should have been a pulse.

Those aren't the worst.

When he starts waking up convinced for just a moment that he left her there alive, broken, abandoned – those are the worst.

Jack holds him close, Sam strokes his hair, and sometimes he can fall back to sleep pressed between them. Sometimes they're lucky and it's already light out, and sometimes it's like tonight, barely 2 a.m. and he can already tell they're all going to be awake for the night.

"Sorry," he mutters, not for the first time, sleepy and frustrated and just _sad_ , into Jack's shoulder.

"Shh," Sam murmurs. Her fingers are very gentle on the back of his neck.

"S'fine," Jack adds, just as quiet. After a long pause; "Wanna get up?"

He thinks about it. They've had to enough times, over the years, at times like these – so many of those times, it seems like so many these days. Someone will make tea, someone else will channel-surf for a movie they've all seen a thousand times, and they'll all curl up in a tangle of arms and legs on the couch and try to blot out the world until the sun starts creeping through the blinds. 

"No." He burrows closer and gets his arms around Jack's chest. Warm skin under his hands, a little scarred maybe but strong and alive. "Stay here," he murmurs. "Sam-"

He doesn't have to say anything more than her name, and only barely that, before she wraps her arms around him from behind and spoons up tightly against his back. Her hands are just as warm and strong, her palm spread flat over his heart. He can feel her breathing right into the curve of his neck, cool and then hot, deep and slow, over and over.

"I miss her," she whispers, between breaths. He feels Jack untangle an arm from between them, guesses from the angle and the flex of muscle that Jack's massaging her neck. It's always surprisingly easy to figure out what's going on even when he can't see or feel it for himself.

"I know," Jack whispers back. "God, me too."

"Yeah." He squeezes his eyes shut, not that it helps. He can still see her. "I wish…" He's been thinking it for a while, but he can't quite get it out, though he knows he doesn't really need to. He knows they all feel the same. 

"She'd have been happy for us," Sam murmurs, sounding utterly certain. She doesn't lift her head, and the words are warm on his skin.

Jack's are just as warm against his hair. "You kidding? She'd have wanted all the dirty details from you."

Sam laughs, soft and sad, but real. "And then she'd have said I'm the luckiest woman in the world." She kisses the back of his shoulder. "She'd have been right, too."

"It's not fair," he murmurs. Not fair that Janet's gone, that he has to remember how she _looked,_ that even the safest place he has in the world doesn't keep the memory away. Not fairthat she never got to know they've found this, that she never got to find something like it for herself.

"No," Jack says, like he knows all of it, and Daniel knows he does. "It's really not."

  


* * *

  


**6.**

She actually cries when Sam says, in a voice that could probably command Goa'uld: "You're staying with me, and don't argue."

Cassie's off at college, and Janet's not having her come home for this, but she's been dreading going back to her own empty house – having to work out how to manage the simple things, dealing with the contractors every day, having them _look_ at her and ask questions while they refit each room. She's so used to injuries in the line of duty, until it's her own.

At least she knows Sam has weeks, if not months, of leave stored up. What she doesn't expect is that the rest of SG-1 will follow suit.

The Colonel is the one who pushes her wheelchair into the elevator, Sam strolling along beside him with a backpack full of drugs and supplies slung over one shoulder. Topside, he helps her into the back of Daniel's car, tells her very firmly – and that's where Sam got the command voice, it must be – that they're off duty now and she has to call him _Jack_ until they're back on base _._

Sam hops in beside her, behind him, and Daniel drives. Just that short trip exhausts her; she wakes up the next morning in Sam's guest room, her tags and meds and a canteen of water all neatly unpacked on the bedside table. There's an SGC issue radio next to them, under a post-it in O'Neill's scrawl: _call when you wake up._

 __It makes her smile. A bit less so when she realises she really has to use it because she can't get her feet under her.

Sam appears almost instantly, sits down on the bed beside her and holds her while she cries all over again with the frustration of it. No complaints, no useless platitudes to try and make her feel like it's going to be okay, just warm, strong arms around her and a soft t-shirt under her cheek until she's got no more tears left. 

"You needed that," Sam says, gently, when she's done, and picks up the radio. "Daniel?"

The click of an open channel is strangely comforting, so normal. " _*Yep?*_ "

"Could you bring the chair in here?"

" _*Be right there.*_ "

Somehow she doesn't question that Daniel is still there, or that he pushes her into a kitchen where O'Neill – Jack – is frying bacon and doing a crossword on the breakfast table. There's a space already without a chair at the table that Daniel steers her into, where someone's put a mug, a carton of creamer and cafetiere still half-full of coffee already within arm's reach. She's very aware that at least one of them is watching as she helps herself, but she manages it - no one even dives in at the tremor when she has to use her left hand, and she appreciates that more than they probably realise.

Days blend one into the other, but mornings become that routine: she wakes up, takes her meds, clicks the radio, and Sam or Daniel come to help her get into the chair that's now living at the edge of the bed. Her good hand and one of theirs wheels her to the breakfast table, she pours coffee while Jack serves up some variation on breakfast, and then she eats – a little more each day – to the sound of them racing each other to beat the crossword. 

Teal'c appears at some point in the first week, and she learns with a few more tears that he's taken over a strict foremanship of the contractors setting up at her place. He slots into things like there was a piece missing all along, except now there's more bacon and the living room smells pleasantly of the half-burned candles on every flat surface.

Maybe she's been a little more out of it than she realised, or maybe it's just the candles that make her suddenly think about it. Teal'c is obviously staying over, after all. But Jack and Daniel are always dressed and fresh-looking every morning, so she's just not thought about it, just assumed they've been driving over. 

"Don't be silly," Daniel says, when she hints. "We weren't going to just leave you to Sam every night. What if something happened?"

What if she fell out of bed trying to go to the bathroom, she hears, or she relapsed and they had to rush her back to the mountain. What if Sam couldn't handle an invalid all on her own.

He must see it in her face, because his hand is gentle and warm on hers. "We really don't mind," he says, and his smile is genuine at least, so she has to trust it. "We don't get weeks at home together that often. It's nice – as much as it can be under the circumstances, I mean." That's all he has to say, so she settles for figuring they're bedded down in the basement, since she's currently hogging the guest room, and doesn't really think about it again.

She has to admit – under the circumstances – it is nice. She's an only child and a single mother with a daughter living away: she's not used to a busy house. Not that SG-1 are especially lively roommates to have, in fact it's a bit of a surprise how relaxed they are. She's used to them in action, she supposes, or being the ones laid up with an injury and complaining loudly about it.

She's not used to Daniel and Jack lazing on the couch each with a book in hand, Daniel's bare feet in Jack's lap, for most of the day. Or Sam tapping away happily at her laptop and soaking up some sun in the back yard, Jack bringing out iced tea so he can fall asleep in the chair on her other side. Or Teal'c calmly explaining building terminology to Daniel, who's putting away groceries in Sam's cupboards as if he doesn't even have to think about where things go. 

By the second week she starts sleeping less during the day, and decides that's a good sign that she's not imagining the way her hand is steadier and her legs ache a little less. Friday comes round again and she's actually still awake at almost eight p.m., enough that she suggests maybe she's up to joining them for a movie, instead of Sam's usual offer of help in the shower?

Sam grins like she's just suggested she could take a run around the block. "Sure, as long as you don't mind crappy sci-fi. Teal'c's got us on a seventies marathon."

At this point Janet would happily rot her brain on anything, and she says so. Sam's grin turns into a laugh, and together they get Janet settled on one couch just as Jack walks in with a bowl of popcorn and two beers in hand.

He raises an eyebrow with a smile. "Joining us tonight, doc?"

" _Silent Running_ is worth staying up for," Sam quips. He hands her a bottle and puts the bowl on the coffee table.

It's like they're making camp, she thinks, when Daniel and Teal'c appear. Everything just happens, quiet and comfortable: Teal'c takes immediate control of the remote, Daniel drags out the floor cushions, Sam decants a smaller bowl of popcorn and brings her a glass of juice to go with it. Jack pulls the coffee table closer to the other couch and props his feet up on it.

Teal'c closes the blinds, carefully adjusts them just so until there's no light coming in at all. Janet resists the urge to giggle at the sight of him taking a seat on the cushions and wriggling a little to settle in. 

Sam finishes up by lighting a few of the candles over the mantle, and then Janet feels a jolt of surprise to see her join Jack on the other couch, tucking her feet up and snuggling up against his side. No one else seems to notice - except for Jack, himself, whose arm slips off the back of the couch to rest around Sam's shoulders as if he was expecting her there.

Then Daniel flicks the overhead light off, leaving just those few candles and the TV screen glowing blue as the tape starts to play, and Janet's suddenly glad of the lower light – it probably hides her shock when Daniel settles close on Jack's other side and hooks one arm through his, hand curling over his thigh.

It's a good thing she's seen this movie at least three times, because she keeps losing track, even though she's definitely still awake.

They never say good morning, she realises. To her, to Teal'c, but never to each other, as if it's not needed. She's assumed Jack and Daniel were camped downstairs, but she hasn't heard anyone go down there except for Sam with the laundry. 

All the little things leap out at her, suddenly. Subtle touches, smiles, easy movements around each other. The way Sam laughs so affectionately when Jack and Daniel are play-bickering: the way they both go calm and quiet when she's between them. Daniel watching Sam and Jack lie out in the sun. Jack making Daniel's coffee and giving Sam the extra crispy bacon every morning.

She's been living with domestic bliss for two weeks and she hasn't even noticed.

Daniel slips off the couch and disappears into the kitchen during the poker scene; Janet's making a mental effort to remind herself of the actual plot of the movie when he taps her very gently on the foot and holds out a mug. It smells warm and sweet.

"Hot cocoa," he says, quiet enough not to disturb anyone actually listening to the TV. Helps her fold her hands around it. "Still comfortable?"

She nods and smiles… and almost doesn't say anything, but it's dark and as secret as it can be and they've all been living together for two weeks now. "You?"

He's close enough to see her raised eyebrow, and for her to see the smile in his eyes. "Yeah."

She's seen this movie three times, at least. She can watch it again if she cares enough. Instead she sips her cocoa and watches them. 

Daniel hands a mug to Sam, another beer to Jack, both traded for a kiss before he settles back down. This time Jack slides an arm around him and tugs him in, and Sam gives them both a warm look over her mug. Daniel smiles back at her, plucks the bottle from the hand hanging over his shoulder and takes a long pull for himself before balancing it on Jack's thigh. It's the picture of simplicity for the rest of the movie: Sam slowly migrating further into Jack's lap while he and Daniel share a beer, all punctuated with soft looks and occasional murmurs she can't hear; even once, Daniel's hand reaching over to brush Sam's hair out of her eyes, fingertips dropping just briefly to her lips as she smiles...

Teal'c doesn't even glance away from the TV until the credits start rolling, and only then with a small, knowing look as he starts to light the rest of the candles. Daniel unfolds himself from Jack's shoulder with a slow stretch and a yawn, and the sleepy candlelight gives everything a warm haze as he hauls Jack to his feet and into a kiss. Sam pushes herself off the couch and puts her lips to the back of his neck, says something in a whisper that makes them break apart with a murmur of laughter. Her fingers drag down the length of Jack's spine, as if she can't quite let go, until finally she pads over to Janet with a hand ready to take her mug.

She takes a long last mouthful of cocoa before holding it out. "Sam?"

"Hmm?" 

Jack's face is nuzzled into Daniel's neck, their fingers tangled together. "Where are they sleeping?"

Sam looks more than a little sheepish. "We kind of thought you knew, already."

"Nope." She arches her eyebrows suggestively. Sam laughs.

" _Yes_ , they're both in with me, okay? Don't get weird about it now," though there's a note of something tentative under her amusement.

Janet smiles. "Not weird to me. Help me up?"

Sam grins and slips an arm under her shoulders.

  


* * *

  



End file.
